Happ’s bat, Quintana’s arm lead Cubs over Jays
A day after striking out four times, rookie Ian Happ struck back.
Happ hit his 18th home run, Jose Quintana pitched six effective innings and the Chicago Cubs beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 Saturday to keep up their success against AL opponents.
The World Series champions have won nine of their last 10 interleague games. The NL Central leaders have won five of seven overall.
Happ hit an RBI single in the first inning and added a solo homer in the fourth. In the sixth, Happ drew a leadoff walk from Danny Barnes (2-4) and later scored on a two-out single by Javier Baez for the go-ahead run.
“The game ebbs and flows all the time. That’s why it is a beautiful game and a terrible game at the same time. You are going to have your good weeks, your bad weeks, good days and your bad days, being able to stay even and keep fighting through it is important,” Happ said.
Baez also made a highlight-reel defensive play in the ninth when he fielded Ryan Goins’ grounder deep in the hole at shortstop after it deflected off Kris Bryant’s glove. Baez made a strong throw to first to get Goins for the second out in the ninth.
“I don’t think we played bad. It’s been the Baez show the past couple days. We’ve seen plenty of that on TV. We battled, we hung in there, but this ballpark you’ve got to hit a home run. I thought we pitched very well. Just wasn’t good enough,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said.
In his seventh start since being acquired in a trade from the White Sox, Quintana (4-2) gave up two runs and four hits. He struck out eight and walked two.
“I thought Quintana was really good today also. It just seemed to me like better command. The last game he had a lot of fastball misses in. He was getting that pitch here today for a strike, curveball was definitely more pertinent today. I didn’t see a lot of changeups. But I saw him pitch with his fastball well and accurately and did a great job,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said.